Why Frank Page is Wrong
May 9, 2008I mentioned the other day this report from Associated Baptist Press and I’ve been pondering it ever since. When it notes
[Frank] Page, [President of the SBC] said the problem “resided in the churches” that refuse to change to stop their inevitable demise. He said the SBC downturn is not the denomination’s fault – because of poor programming or lack of emphasis on the denominational level. “The reality is it’s our fault,” Page told the Pastor’s Disciple-Making Network, an initiative of the North Carolina convention. “People rarely rise above the level of their pastor’s spiritual life, and it is critical that pastors maintain a vibrant walk with Christ.”
I find myself having to disagree. It’s high time that people take responsibility for their own spirituality. While Page may be right that some Church members only rise to the level of their Pastor’s spirituality, many, many more either do not rise to any sort of spirituality at all and others rise well above their Pastor’s. Further, if Page’s suggestion is taken seriously then
1- Lot is to be blamed for the destruction of Sodom because he wasn’t spiritual enough.
2- Jeremiah is to be blamed for the fall of the Southern Kingdom because he didn’t preach well enough or convincingly enough.
3- Hosea and Amos are to be blamed for the same thing regarding the Northern Kingdom.
4- John the Baptist is to be blamed for his failure to persuade Herod to repent.
5- Jesus is to be blamed for his disciples abandoning him at the Cross- if he had only been spiritual enough, they would have followed his example and been willing to suffer arrest and execution instead of running off like scared children and hiding.
6- Paul is to be blamed that the Roman empire as a whole didn’t come to Christianity during his lifetime.
7- John is to be blamed that the world hasn’t opened the door to the knocking Jesus. If he only had been more spiritual they would have done so.
In short, blaming the failure of modern Baptists on pastoral leadership (or lack thereof) is the same thing as blaming Jesus for the failure of his followers down through the ages.
Each Christian stands before God alone- and responsible for their own spirituality. As long as Page and others attempt to lay blame for the decline of Christianity at the feet of those striving and living and dying for the Gospel, one and all will ignore their own part in the play.
You know, there really ought to be a group of Christians that emphasize that believers are individually accountable before God for the state of their souls and need no mediator but Christ.
There used to be- they were called Baptists. Then, many of them became more interested in politics than theology and turned priesthood of the believer over to someone else.
Actually they are also called Protestants. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox also put a big emphasis on “working out one’s salvation with fear and trembling”. We have been so lulled to sleep by justification by grace we have forgotten that faith is an action with a set of individual actors who are within a community. It’s a misinterpretation of Luther as it is a misinterpretation of Scripture. Luther removed the barrier of Priest as proxy to Christ, but he did not remove the importance of works.
The problem stems from the strain of Christianity that looks at Jesus as friend at the expense of Jesus as Lord. This is why Kevin Smith’s movie Dogma is so poignant in the midst of being repugnant for effect, and humor.
Quite right Drew- especially about Luther.
But Christians who rise above their pastor’s level of spirituality are likely to leave that church to find a more spiritual one. So if it’s a Baptist pastor who is not so spiritual, that contributes to the decline of the Baptist denomination.
Anyway, surely you are not objecting to a call to pastors to be more spiritual? Next you will be objecting to motherhood and apple pie.
Sure, it’s common for rats to desert the ship. However, if a person is authentically spiritual they don’t ‘church hop’- they stay where they are and use their gifts to minister to the entire community of faith, including the pastor.
And, no, I don’t object to motherhood. Apple pie, on the other hand, is another of the many foodstuffs making America fat. Where’s Gillian McKeith when you need her?
But, Jim, what if the pastor does not allow others to minister to him or her? That, sadly, is the case in many churches where the pastors try to call all the shots, mock the work of the Holy Spirit, and drag the level of spirituality of their congregation down to their own. In such a case submission to the pastor would be disobedience to God. And refusal to submit to the pastor would be disobeying the biblical command to respect him or her. So perhaps best for the truly spiritual person to leave and find a church where God’s work can continue.